White nationalist bloodied during DC protest

WASHINGTON — A member of a white nationalist group was bloodied Saturday while confronting a large group of protesters outside the site of a Washington conference celebrating Donald Trump’s presidential victory.

The conference, hosted by the white nationalist organization National Policy Institute, met inside the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center downtown, a block from Trump’s new International Hotel. NPI’s leader is Richard Spencer, known for coining the term “alt-right” and promoting white supremacist views.

The group was generally peaceful until a man and a woman from NPI approached the group with a video camera and microphone, prompting protesters to yell “Nazi’s go home.” The woman, who wouldn’t give CNN her name but wore a badge saying “Emily,” appeared to interview a protester asking him if he is a “self-hating white person.”

Another protester knocked the man’s video camera, and a scuffle ensued between the two. A few other protesters entered the fray yelling “Die, Nazi, die,” and the man from NPI re-emerged with a bloody gash on his forehead. He declined to give his name. Two protesters were handcuffed by police. CNN videotaped the incident.

The pair from NPI was later escorted to a waiting ambulance by police, while the rest of the protesters continued marching peacefully along Pennsylvania Avenue.

A group called Smash Racism DC posted a call to action on Facebook, encouraging people to “challenge” the NPI and “make noise, chant, and be generally disruptive.”

The intent of the group, according to an event page entitled “Stand up to Fascism,” was to “make noise, chant, and be generally disruptive.”

“We confront, and do not ignore, oppressors,” the website says.

“Emily,” who referred to the protesters as communists. said she is concerned about the decreasing white population in the United States but less so “now that Donald Trump is president.”

Protester Carl Goldman said, “That’s what they said in Nazi Germany, where my relatives grew up.”